The cover of ‘Still’

Something nice happened this week – I won a competition with my first ever piece of flash fiction.
I entered the Negative Press/Foyles short story competition for stories inspired by a photograph from artist-photographer Roelof Bakker’s art project ‘Still’ (other photos and the stories inspired by them appear in a book called ‘Still: Short Stories Inspired by Photographs of Vacated Spaces‘, which is available to buy now). Ten writers were shortlisted in the competition, including my good pal Gill Blow, and it was very nice to find out this week that I’d won. You can read the story and also see the photograph that inspired it on the Foyles website here. The competition was judged by Roelof Bakker, Foyles local marketing manager Lisa Bywater plus authors Nicholas Hogg and Evie Wyld (both of whom contributed to the ‘Still’ book). And Evie Wyld said some very nice things about the story too: ‘It was the voice that attracted me and Nicholas Hogg to this one. Her story is strong and understated at the same time.’
My piece, ‘Piano’, can be seen in the Foyles cafe gallery as part of a ‘Still’ exhibition until the end of November.